Settings for What iPhone Looks Like, Sounds Like, and Reports

The Notifications Settings on your iPhone.

One of the biggest additions that came to the iPhone via the iOS 5 upgrade was Notification Center. By swiping down from the top of the screen, you can receive a variety of notifications, from missed calls and texts to appointments.

Under Notifications Settings, you can choose which apps report information in Notification Center and choose whether these apps should be sorted manually or by time, that is, the order in which they come in.

After you determine which apps belong in Notification Center, tap the app listing in the In Notification Center roster and choose an alert style (a banner that appears at the top of the screen momentarily before it disappears or an alert, which requires you to do something before it goes away).

You can turn off notifications for individual apps. Simply tap an app in the In Notification Center list, and turn on or off the app’s sounds, alerts, or badges.

You’ll also find a setting here for the Do Not Disturb feature added in iOS 6. When turned on, the iPhone is respectful of your wishes to not be bothered by needless phone calls or alerts. The moon icon in the status bar reminds you that the feature is turned on.

You can schedule the time that the Do Not Disturb edict is in effect and customize it to allow calls from your favorites or designated contacts. You can also turn on a Repeated Calls option that bypasses Do Not Disturb if the same caller rings you twice within three minutes.